Does Mysticism Prove the Existence of God?

Welcome to our new subscriber-only series: Inflection Points.

Hello from vacation, dear subscribers. I hope this unofficial end of summer is bringing with it some joy, or at least distraction, or perhaps love, lust, and holiness, why not.

This week, the dedicated staff here at Both/And (=me) are launching a new feature for paid subscribers, which I’m tentatively calling Inflection Points. These posts, which will start coming out twice a month for paid subscribers only, will consist of older articles of mine that captured a personal moment of transition or realization: a point of inflection on some theological, psychedelic, contemplative, or political curve. I hope you’ll find them interesting — your comments and likes will help shape the direction of this feature, and if you have a better name for it, I am all ears.

This week’s Inflection Point was published twenty years ago, July 2025, and was included in the anthology of my contemplative writing entitled Enlightenment by Trial and Error. As I’ve moved more deeply into psychedelic practice in the last few years, the question with which it begins is still very much alive for me. And as the world has turned darkly toward deeply-held, instinctual beliefs (nationalism, religious fundamentalism, etc.), the perhaps unexpected costs of “trusting our own deepest experiences” (to quote my teacher Sharon Salzberg) have become more apparent.